In Westborough, Massport CEO promotes new options at Worcester airport

Friday

Sep 27, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 27, 2013 at 8:21 PM

Residents in central and western Massachusetts don’t have to travel to Boston to catch a domestic flight, Tom Glynn, CEO and executive director of the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) told local business leaders Thursday.

Sara Mulkeen/Daily News staff

Residents in central and western Massachusetts don’t have to travel to Boston to catch a domestic flight, Tom Glynn, CEO and executive director of the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) told local business leaders Thursday.

Glynn, who was appointed to the Massport role last year, spoke to members of the Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel about expanding options offered by Massport to help improve both transportation and economic development.

Glynn said since Worcester’s status as the second largest city in New England and the high concentration of healthcare, IT and biotech companies in the Central Mass. area attracted JetBlue Airways to Worcester Regional Airport, where the airline will begin offering daily service to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla., in November.

"These are new choices that we’re trying to present to the business community and leisure travelers," Glynn said.

Massport, which also owns and operates Logan International Airport, conducted a Logan Airport Air Passenger Ground-Access Survey in 2010, which found that most business passengers at the Boston airport are from the area between Worcester and Marlborough, Glynn said.

Additionally, the survey found that most leisure passengers who travel out of Logan are from Worcester and areas surrounding major highways.

Glynn said he hopes families vacationing in warmer weather will travel via JetBlue out of Worcester Regional Airport this winter, and that those who have positive experiences will use the airport again for their business travel to places such as New York and Washington, D.C.

"We really need to convince people in this part of the state," he said. "It takes a while to build a root in any new community."

Glynn said he isn’t worried that JetBlue will pull out of Worcester like a number of other airlines did in the early 1990s because JetBlue has "deep pockets" and sees the potential value in the Central Mass. region.

"If we make Worcester more of an alternative (to Logan) it will help everyone," Glynn said.

In Boston, Massport is focusing on creating more direct international flights, Glynn noted.

Sara Mulkeen can be reached at 508-490-7475 or smulkeen@wickedlocal.com.

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